angelus512 Posted April 15, 2007 Posted April 15, 2007 Hey considering this is about sound I figured it'd be more relevant here than the other forums sorry about that. Anyways I'm planning on buying a cable so I can hookup my PC's sound jack to the TV so my sound just comes out of the TV speakers which I plan on continuing to use until such time as I can save enough money for a filthy Audio setup. Anywho the question is the sound output on my PC is just a basic onboard AC3 (i think) chipset thats built into the motherboard, its not a soundcard or anyhing. Just wondering will my PC still pump through the original signal to the TV? Like because my TV can decode DD 5.1 and what not or more to the point my amplifier could when I get it will the computer output an unaltered original signal. Like if i'm playing a DVD on my computers DVD drive and the movie is in DD 5.1 will my computer output the original sound? Or do I need a specific soundcard that has support for DD in order to pass the signal along to either TV or amp? I'm thinking whilst the chipset on my motherboard itself can't decode DD (i think) it shouldn't stop it from just passing the original signal along to my TV and amp and providing 1 of those 2 items can decode DD then it will. I ask the question cos I don't really wanna buy a soundcard for my PC just so i can pass along a DD signal to my amp when clearly in that whole process i'm not really planning on using the soundcard anyways....i just wanna pass the original signal out and along to either AMP or TV.
KernelPanic Posted April 16, 2007 Posted April 16, 2007 If your sound card can output a digital signal, and your tv can accept it, then yes, you will get an original signal.
angelus512 Posted April 16, 2007 Author Posted April 16, 2007 Its just a normal onboard AC3 souind chip with 3 jacks 1 for speakers 1 for headphones and the other...i'm not sure. We all know the type. Will it pass along the signal so the amp or tv can recieve DD or do i need a soundcard with say optical out or something? The above post didn't really clarify for me.
jakes Posted April 16, 2007 Posted April 16, 2007 Its just a normal onboard AC3 souind chip with 3 jacks 1 for speakers 1 for headphones and the other...i'm not sure.We all know the type. Will it pass along the signal so the amp or tv can recieve DD or do i need a soundcard with say optical out or something? The above post didn't really clarify for me. What you have is an onboard soundcard. You need to find out if one of those jacks (maybe the one you're not sure about, although it's likely to be a line-in for recording) is a digital output (S/PDIF). If it is you'd connect a cable from digital out to digital in on your tv or amp and then to output a Dolby Digital stream you need to go into your soundcard drivers or media player program or DTV program and select AC3 passthrough. This will then send a digital stream, to be decoded by your external amplifier (or tv if it has a digital in). If you're looking at getting 5.1 Dolby Digital, though there isn't much point sending it to your tv, since it only has two speakers - a home theatre receiver would be your best bet. However, you need a digital output on your soundcard, and I'm not sure that you've actually got one. This means that if you want to get sound to the TV or a receiver, you'll have to connect to the analogue speaker output from the soundcard and connect to your tv with a mini-jack to 2 rca cable. Obviously, if there's only one speaker out jack - you're only going to get stereo sound. A manual for your motherboard will tell you what your connection options are, and if you're lacking a s/pdif output, you might need to look into a soundcard, or upgrading your motherboard if you want to stick with onboard sound. (Actually given that this really a computer hardware question, you might have been better asking it in the Digital TV Tuner cards section - there's a fair bit about HTPCs there, and your question has more than likely already been answered).
angelus512 Posted April 16, 2007 Author Posted April 16, 2007 thanks mate that clarifies things for me. Seems I'm better served getting a soundcard. Only about 100 to 150 bucks anyways.
Gutty Posted April 16, 2007 Posted April 16, 2007 Just been researching a HTPC myself, being built this week. For sound, i have a similar setup to you on my current PC, 3 mini jacks(on a Soltek motherboard), what i have found is that i can re-assign(from mic etc) these to run 6 channel audio out to my reciever with the use of 3 mini jack > 2 RCA cables giving me 5.1 sound. However, not wanting to tie up the 8 channel analgue inputs on my reciever, i opted for a new sound card, i personally chose one with a digital coax output, but cards with optical can be had much cheaper. To get 5.1 you'll need to use all 3 mini jacks, or a digital conection.
Mr.Bitey Posted April 17, 2007 Posted April 17, 2007 Im not following how your getting 5.1 sound from 3 audio jacks.. You'd need 6 audio jacks to get 5.1 (one for each of the 6 channels). Cheers, Bitey
Gutty Posted April 17, 2007 Posted April 17, 2007 3 stereo jacks. Bingo ! Green is the front speaker outs, blue the rears, and pink the centre and sub.
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